How your members of Congress voted

Share story

WASHINGTON — Here’s how the state’s members of Congress voted on major issues in the week ending Jan. 15.

House

Mountaintop-removal coal mining

By a vote of 235 for and 188 against, the House on Jan. 12 passed a GOP-sponsored bill (HR 1644) that would shelve a new federal rule aimed at protecting streams and drinking water from pollution caused by mountaintop-removal coal mining. The rule addresses the practice of companies blasting mountaintops and then dumping rocks and other debris into nearby streams and valleys.

Dispute over Clean Water Act

The House on Jan. 13 voted, 253 to 166, to kill a new Environmental Protection Agency rule that gives protection under the 1972 Clean Water Act to headwaters, wetlands and other waters upstream of navigable waters. (The act already covers navigable waters.) The rule does not apply to nonnavigable waters used in farming. This vote sent a GOP-sponsored resolution of disapproval (SJ Res 22) to President Obama, who said he would veto it.

Voting yes: Herrera Beutler, Newhouse, McMorris Rodgers, Reichert

Voting no: DelBene, Larsen, Kilmer, McDermott, Heck

Not voting: Smith

North Korean economic sanctions

By a vote of 418 to 2, the House on Jan. 12 passed a bill (HR 757) that would expand U.S. economic sanctions on businesses and countries engaged in transactions that directly or indirectly bolster the North Korean military and supply Pyongyang with hard currency.

Senate

Congressional audit of Federal Reserve

Voting 53 to 44, the Senate on Jan. 12 failed to reach 60 votes needed to advance a bill (S 2232) that would authorize a full congressional audit of the Federal Reserve System. The bill would inject politicians into internal Fed deliberations. Established in 1913 as both an independent agency and central bank, the Fed is charged with setting U.S. monetary policy, with fiscal policy left to the legislative and executive branches.